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On March 11th, 2021, President Biden signed The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law. This historic piece of legislation will provide approximately $1.9 trillion in relief and federal investment to address the on-going impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding has the possibility to transform communities for children and families. As the cradle-to-career backbone for Kenosha County, Building Our Future is well positioned to support entities in leveraging dollars to not only build back better, but build with equity and build to last. The American Rescue Plan Act will bring more than $135 million of flexible funding for children and youth to the Kenosha County community, via City, County, and Village governments; K-12 education systems; and higher education institutions. Building Our Future has created a handout that strives to make this funding easy to understand for partners, advocates, and community members.  More detailed national and local dashboards created by Children's Funding Project can be found here.
Did you know that over 4,000 children under age 5 in Kenosha County may not have access to child care? That parents in Kenosha County pay on average 2.8 times the recommended national guidelines towards infant care costs? That only 7% of child care in Kenosha County is rated as 5-star, compared to 13% at the state level? Learn more in our new Early Childhood & Education in Kenosha County handout! We encourage you to leverage this material in your advocacy and systems change efforts related to early care & education.   New episodes of Building Our Future's podcast, Together, We're Better, have dropped! In episode 7 of Together, We’re Better, Community Engagement Manager Brandon Morris talks with our local Parent Advocates and our partners from the Wisconsin Partnership – a collaborative effort of the four StriveTogether-affiliated local collective impact partnerships in Wisconsin, about how parents can lead change in their communities, specifically for early childhood care and education. Featured in this episode are Parents Advocate for Child Care (PACC) Fellows: Ashley Wells, Genevieve Gerou and Patrick Langston. One parent advocate, Ashley Wells, explains how the PACC Fellowship equipped her with the necessary skills to confidently speak with her elected representatives and inspire other parents to use their power as a parent to make changes. In episode 8 of Together, We're Better, learn about the origin of Building Our Future and how the partnership has evolved over the past five years. The latest episode features Jean Moran, retired CEO of LMI Packaging, Todd Battle, president of Kenosha Area Business Alliance and Tatjana Bicanin, executive director of BOF as they walk down memory lane on how Building Our Future became the first collective impact initiative in Kenosha County to address social and educational outcomes in Kenosha County.
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